For those who have the same warped sense of humour this Letter can also be had in French.
(Complaints can be addressed to the Blog Council, your nearest newspaper, radio or TV station and when you leave this blog remember to pull the chain)
*Terms & Conditions Apply, if you can find them.

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Brilliant Trail Blazer's new Consumer standard

Dear Consumers,

Brilliant, fantastic.There's nothing like a trail blazerand hopefully they'll all be doing it one of these days.

How come it’s taken something like a 100 years at a rough guess, for somebody to realise that consumers can’t go on being taken for a ride like this.

Don’t’ think for a minute that they are there to protect you, the consumer. But you are stillexpected to comply with them as one of the privileges of parting with your hard earned cash.

I don’t know when they started creeping in; those ominous words Terms and ConditionsApply. They could only have been dreamt up by some corporate lawyer determined to ensure that his client received the utmost protection from those ravenous sharks in the consumer pool.

It’s behind these few words that advertisers hide all the nasty bits; all the things they are too ashamed to tell you openly in case they put you off their product completely.

If they do actually let you see them in an ad why do they appear in the smallest possible print if they expect you to apply them? Looking at just a couple of editions of theSunday Times I found these horrors in most of the large advertisements.

One ad from Clover Dairies exhorted us to buy a bottle of milk to get a complimentary Sunday Times subscription delivered to your door.Simpleenoughyou would have thought but the mile longTerms andConditionstorpedoed the whole thing.

This was especially so as the print was so minute that only a forensic laboratory would have been able to decipher it. Even a paper that is in the printing business is so ashamed of them that it doesn’t want you to see them.

All those words of warning for a bottle of milk and a newspaper; it’s unbelievable. Thankfully this dairy/newspaper team is not selling cars.

A center spread colour ad for First National Bank told us about various aspects of its wonderful service. And in the one corner the tiny Terms and Conditions warning appeared to put the breaks on any fancy ideas you might have about asking for more than you are entitled to.

Where you were supposed to find them was your problem. Did that gel with the bank’s motto: How can we help you?that appeared on the other side of the page?

Other ads continued to promote this game of hide and seek. Cell C told us helpfully that for Terms and Conditions visit cellc.co.za

Fixed line operatorTelkom took up an entire page to tell us about its Gr 8 Deal which is its venture into the cell phone business. And of course the smallest print at the bottom was reserved for the catches, otherwise known as its full terms and conditions.These were hiding on its website.

With all these big companies still stuck in a time warp it’s been so refreshing to see Riaan Stassen and his Capitec Bank cutting through this ridiculous protectionist, consumer unfriendly behaviour.Its television ad shows a man holding up a card with Terms and Conditions Apply written on it in bold letters.

What do you think he does with it? He tears it up and throws it away.

No wonder South Africa’s youngest bank, that is just 10 years old, was named one of the 27 Great Brands of Tomorrow by Credit Suisse. It was the only Africanbrand to be included.

Not surprisingly its share price has gone through the roof.

How long have we got to wait before the rest of the business world in South Africa wakes up to the fact that Terms and Conditions are a gigantic no, no and should all be torn up and thrown in the rubbish bin?

Do your bit consumers by keeping well clear of the Terms and Conditions freaks.

Yours watchfully,

Jon, the Consumer Watchdog

P.S. I have now been embarrassed into revealing my Terms and Conditions referred to in the introduction to my blog. They are: Don’t believe anythingon myBlog unless it’s true. That’s the gist of thembut mylawyer has managed to spin them out to 25 pages which can be found on my website if only I had one.

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About Me

I was born in South Africa just before the Boer War whenever that was?
Started life with a golden spoon in my mouth which made eating rather difficult as a result I was under nourished as a child.
Went to a posh school where I only got moved up a class when my old man donated another sight screen for the cricket pitch.
Career prospects were dismal and I was once turned down for a job in the London sewers. "Too highly qualified;"that’s what they said.
I became a journalist when the Police Force wouldn’t have me.
Like most journos I know nothing about everything but I still write about it.
I decided to have my own blog so I wouldn't have to drink with the editor for hours on end to get my stuff published when according to my independent assessment it’s always of great news value.
My religious beliefs are: You only die once so remember, "You can’t be serious and Have Fun."
NEWS FLASH: I've just been appointed the Poor Man's Press Ombudsman by Presidential Decree (Not to be confused with the PRESS COUNCIL OF SOUTH AFRICA'S, SA Press Ombudsman)